This component of the RISE Program concerns developmental activities for students in the area laboratory methods in biomedical research. Students will learn how to design, implement, and analyze experiments by exposing them to basic research techniques in a workshop format coordinated by participating faculty members. The rationale for holding this series of workshops for new RISE students is to provide a solid foundation in a number of state-of-the-art techniques used in biomedical research. Most of our students have not had much high school science lab experience and their laboratory exposure during their first two years at CSU would have been fairly basic and compartmentalized. These workshops would provide practical applications of knowledge assimilated in physics, chemistry, and biology courses. The design of the workshops would be set to simulate the environment of a biomedical research laboratory. The main goal of the workshops is to present the tools used by these scientists in a way that integrates and relates the fields. The Specific Aims of this project are: A. To expose students to basic research tools in the biomedical area. Students will learn how to design, implement, and analyze experiments in a workshop format coordinated by participating faculty members. B. To have students apply these techniques to two different training projects that require a variety of tools. This approach will best prepare students for Ph.D.-level research that has become increasingly interdisciplinary. Students will be exposed to different scientific philosophies, participate in scientific debates and ethical discussions, and work as a team on a multi-faceted project. C. To develop the critical thinking skills of students by incorporating the critical analysis of scientific papers into the TILT summer activities and to continue this activity during the academic year through individual mentoring and group activities. We believe that the Project aims the can best be achieved by identifying projects that are biomedical in scope, and that draw on the expertise of faculty in Biology and Chemistry & Physics at CSU. The PI and three or four additional faculty members will direct different components of each of the projects. The technical and analytical skills required for the individual components of the projects will be developed in the workshops.